The Second Quarter Quell
by EmiliaVance
Summary: Haymitch Abernathy s Hunger Games


It had become an ocurrent dream.

I would be sitting outside my old house, watching the sunset over the small town when she would call me. Her soft voice would fly through the open windows and reach me like a soft touch.

Then I would turn back and enter the house. Silence would fall and I would see them, sitting in the middle of the living room, she would be holding her in her arms and a thin line of blood will slide on the wooden ground towards me.

Her blue eyes would lock on to mine and a sad smile would appear on her face.

-Join us- she then would ask in a soft silky voice.

And just when I started to walk towards her, they would both catch on fire. Smoke would fill the house and blood tears would star to creep out of her eyes.

-Do something-she would ask me whispering.

But I could not move. I had to watch both burn to ashes in front to me without being capable of doing anything more than hearing her whisper for me.

Help me

Save me

Do something

The thing she would say change often, but not the last words. Those always stayed the same.

It´s your fault.

I woke up covered in cold sweat. My breathing was fast and shallow and my mouth tasted of blood. I stood up in silence and looked through the small window.

It was a grey day, there was wind and clouds covered the whole sky of District 12. I smiled.

The Reaping would be ruined.

-Justice- I muttered, tasting the word. I had never used it like that before and felt a little odd saying it without talking about how it didn´t exist.

The Hunger Games have always bothered me more than I should let. It isn´t the fact they kill the people that participate, it´s the way they use them. It entertains the people in the Capitol to watch a bunch of young kids kill each other, they like the pain and the blood, they enjoy watching them struggle and losing.

-They get off on the humiliation the Hunger Games provide for the districts- I think disgusted- they give them just the smallest amount of hope to be able to watch it crush between their hands.

A soft nock on the door took me out of my meditations. Mrs Shields entered the room with her classic small smile.

-Adrian is getting dressed- she said- he told me to tell you he plans to visit one of his friends on the market before heading to the Reaping.

I nod. She leaves my clean clothes for the reaping and smiles before leaving.

That's the best woman I know in the entire world.

Mother of three kids she took me in when my mother died and my real father refused to let me enter his house. She feed me, took care of me and treated me like one of her kind.

When her eldest daughter got selected in the reaping, she stood strong, like no one I had seen before. Now, two years after that, her entire family seemed to have overcome the pain. They remembered with happiness and joy the small things Callia used to do, keeping the memories like small treasures inside them.

I meet Adrian outside the market. He´s talking to a younger girl. I watch them with a grin.

She´s out of his league. Dark blond hair, pale skin and a unharmed face label her as one the girl´s of the upper part of the district. She has to be the daughter of a powerful man that would never allow her to marry a simple miner like Adrian.

Adrian is smiling when he sees me. His smile turns into a serious face and he starts to walk towards me, leaving the girl alone. I watch him with a critical eye.

Medium height, not to skinny, but he hasn´t got well formed mussels, olive colored skin and brown eyes. He is clearly of the Seem.

-New girlfriend? - I ask- What happened to Delia?

-Shut up- he tells me as we walk into the market. I look at him for a moment and then he starts to grin.

Of course he has a new girlfriend, it´s his twisted way of celebrating his last reaping.

We come out of the market two hours later with our pockets full of money. I have a small cut on my lips from a punch a drunk mane gave me, a black eye and my shoulder hurts, but in all, it was one of the best mornings we´ve had since the start of the fights.

Dante meets us on the back of his house. We give him part of the money and he smiles.

-A few months and we´ll be able to start our own business- he says. Adrian starts to talk to him about what we´re going to do and a just zoom out.

We started this the year before, the original idea was that both Adrian and I would fight and Dante would keep the money, but after proving himself completely useless when it came to throw punches, Adrian joined Dante and I was left alone to fight the men of District 12.

Adrian pads me in the back letting me know we´re done. We walk up to his house and leave the other part of the money for his mother. We keep a few coins and head to the bathroom.

I let Adrian´s little sister, Maisie, heal me. She is almost thirteen years old, four younger than me but looks at me with the same disrespectfulness she uses on her brother.

-I saw your father today- she tells me while cleaning the lip cut. Her eyes are fixed on my lips so she can´t see the way I tighten my fists.

-He came here looking for my dad, but I think he just wanted to see you- she keeps going- I think he wanted to wish you luck.

-I don´t think so- I say, maybe a little too harsh- he doesn´t care about me.

She nods in silence and finishes her job with a small smile.

-He looked just like you, and it made me wonder if his son looks like you.

I smile to her.

-Let´s hope not- I say- one Haymitch Abernathy is enough.

She laughs and heads away, just in time to avoid her brother coming out of the bathroom in nothing but a towel.

He looks at me.

-You look like crap-he says.

-Not as much as you- I say entering the bathroom.

I hear the small knock his towel makes against the closed bathroom door and smile. Adrian Shields cares an awful lot about his looks.

I bath in silence. Wash every corner of my sweaty body and try not to let out the gasps of pain every time I move. As I dry myself in the bathroom I look in the mirror, worried.

You don´t look like him- I tell myself- you look like her.

But it´s a lie. I have the pale skin of the upper class and the same chin and same dark eye color as him. Maisie is right. I look just like Sean Abernathy.

I get dressed in silence and head of to the Reaping like it´s just a simple gathering. On the way there Maisie takes my hand.

-I have a bad feeling-she says.

-You feel like the odd aren´t in your favor?-I ask grinning.

-I´m serious- she answers- and they never are in our favor, they are on them.

She looks at the richer kids and the Capitol sent personnel. I can´t deny it, I just squeeze her hand and look at her.

We separate and I just go in silence to my corner. The speech about the rebellion starts and I slowly begin to drift away.

The woman that presents the Games for us is called Deva and she is desperately trying to cover her age with all the makeup she is wearing. It actually makes her look older, like she´s forty something instead of the thirties she actually is.

-As you all know- she says with her weird Capitol accent- today we celebrate the 50th Hunger Games and our beloved president Snow though the reason why this reaping is special should be kept a secret.

I smile with irony. There is the reason why Maisie was nervous.

-For our second Quarter Quell we´ll be picking two male tributes and two female tributes to show the Districts how the Capitol can overcome them no matter what- she reads from a paper.

Silence falls like a heavy knife for all of us. I feel the other boys next to me tense up and hear one or two small cries.

-Isn´t that wonderful- Deva continues smiling- you will have as twice as opportunities to win the Games this year.

I sigh. She´s wrong. We have the same chances as usual to win the Games, they´re just going to rip twice the number of families this year.

A wave of whispers runs through the crowd and Deva has to talk again to make them stop.

-LADIES FIRST- she screams at the microphone. She walks to the orbs and just then I notice for the first time our only winner.

He is sitting next to the Mayor, has a straight face and looks older than him. I give him forty five years. He is clearly from the Seem, and looks just like her.

-Maybe he even knew her- I mumble.

-Maysilee Donner- Deva says opening a little paper.

It takes the young girl four minutes to get to the platform. Her friend and her sister are left crying of the group and everybody watches in silence, doing absolutely nothing, because there isn´t a single thing they can do.

The girl is tall and pretty. Has straight dark blonde hair and big clear eyes. It takes me a second to recognize Adrian´s new girlfriend. I turn back to look at him. His eyes are on the ground.

-How old are you dear?-Deva asks.

-Sixteen- she mumbles.

The woman then leaves her alone and a single tear runs down her cheek. I admire her for a moment. She is truly brave.

-Calista Waters- Deva reads.

This time it´s an older girl. She is my age. But she clearly has starved. Her body is thin like a stick and in her red eyes I recognize the sign of addiction. I´ve seen her with the Peace Keepers and with the drinks lady. She says she is 18 years old and I nod. I was right.

The capitol woman moves to the boys now and a let a sigh out. Maisie is save again.

She picks a random name and I feel the known feeling that always attacks me under this situation.

-Not me, not me not me- I mumble.

-Ezra Devid.

It´s a rich boy. I know just by hearing his name. He walks slowly to the woman and I give him a good look.

Tall and strong, pale skin and blonde hair. He almost looks like one of those professional tributes.

He is seventeen years old, stands next to Adrian´s girlfriend and gives her a calming look. I hope they´re not close friends.

-Last one- Deva says with a little jump of joy.

-Haymitch Abernathy.

First, I smile.

-It´s not Adrian or Dante- I tell myself with relief.

Then it crashes me.

I am the one she called.

I´m going to the Hunger Games, and I´m going there to die.

Hi there! Thank you for reading and please let me know if I made any grammatical mistakes because English isn´t my first language. Review please!

If you don´t recognize a character, then I made them, if you do, Suzanne Collins owns him or her.


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